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New Study Supposedly Puts Humans in Britain 800,000 Years Ago

New study supposedly puts humans in Britain 800,000 years ago. Aside from the accuracy of dating techniques the major question is how humans of that era might have dealt with the frigid winters there. The study concludes that the answer to this is unclear. However, as possibilities it suggests physical adaptation to the cold, seasonal migrations, and advances in the technologies of clothing, shelter, control of fire and hunting (both for skins to make clothing and shelter, and for food during periods of sparse vegetation). The humans were an as-yet undetermined Homo species but most probably Homo Antecessor. It is speculated that they entered the region when the climate was warmer and hung on instead of leaving as it grew colder. The findings have been published in the British journal, Nature.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60971/title/Ancient_homi...

http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/early-humans-britain.html (This article ridiculously refers to the humans as Homo Sapiens.)

The article per Nature is at:

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7303/full/nature09117.html

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by nick altman on July 9, 2010 at 12:42am

Wow, they are claiming it was homo sapien?
What sort of website is this?
I must check this out personally.

Permalink Reply by Bryon on July 9, 2010 at 1:01am

Go ahead and check it out Nick. If you have taken one Biological Anthropology class you will see how silly this is. I am utterly amazed that it appears in a journal as reputable as Nature.

Permalink Reply by nick altman on July 9, 2010 at 1:07am

Yeah, it was pretty striking to me. And every article's comment section I read seemed to be filled with religious people claiming evolution is a religion with no basis in empirical evidence. Yikes.

Permalink Reply by Bryon on July 9, 2010 at 1:10am

I pay no attention to the religious nut jobs as that is more ridicules then Homo sapiens living in London before they evolved.

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 9, 2010 at 5:55am

The article in Nature refers to them only as hominins, not homo sapiens. Nonetheless I wonder about the credibility of the dating techniques.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v466/n7303/full/nature09117.html

Permalink Reply by nick altman on July 9, 2010 at 7:41am

It's the discovery article that refers to it as a homo sapiens site.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Terence Meaden on July 9, 2010 at 9:00am

The only homo species known to be in Europe at this period was Homo anticessor.
The date being attributed to the 78 flint artefacts found at Happisburgh, along with bones from hippos and sabre-tooth cats together with information about climate records, suggest some moment between 850,000 and 950,000 years ago. [See this week's Nature article].

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 10, 2010 at 7:00am

Here is a third article on the subject. It refers to the hominins as an as-yet unidentified Homo species that is probably Homo Antecessor. It speculates that the hominins migrated to the region when the weather was warmer and then hung on as it got colder.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/60971/title/Ancient_homi...

Permalink Reply by Dale on July 11, 2010 at 3:46pm

Ya, since there were no bones to indicate which pre-homo sapien group it was we only need to know which groups had the ability to make the flint tools that were found, which I am going to guess could have been many. I do hope more information is found, it would be interesting. I need to read a few anthropology books, luckily I have two or three around here.

Permalink Reply by John Jubinsky on July 11, 2010 at 6:00pm

They were very probably Homo antecessor. There is a slim chance that they were Homo erectus but this species was by and large much farther east at the time. Some could have been in southern Europe but I don't think there is evidence of them having been in northern Europe at the time. Nonetheless, no bones were found and science has a history of surprises.